Pirates may be headed for special season
GREENVILLE – The door to big-time opportunity opened Saturday for East Carolina’s football program and its thousands of screaming fans.
Well, that’s not exactly the most correct way to phrase it.
What actually happened before a full house — a completely mad house — in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium was that the Pirates kicked down that door, stampeded en masse through it, smothered No. 8-ranked West Virginia in its tracks and recorded one of the most impressive victories in school history — or at least since the previous weekend’s 27-22 win over No. 17-ranked Virginia Tech in Charlotte.
The resounding 24-3 victory over West Virginia means, short term, that Skip Holtz’ fourth team is virtually certain to gain a spot in next week’s national top 25 rankings. Entering the weekend, ECU was technically No. 27 in The Associated Press poll.
But based on Saturday’s performance, it’s a mortal lock there aren’t 26 better teams in the nation at this point — a fact poll voters cannot possibly overlook. Against Heisman Trophy-candidate Pat White and a Mountaineers team favored to win the Big East Conference championship, the Pirates looked a heck of a lot more like No. 7 than No. 27.
newsobserver.com
9/7/08
Magnolia Tribune
